Conventions for German-English Courses
General *Parts of speech should be added for every word in the “Part of speech” field using the following terms: adjective, verb, adverbs, noun, preposition, interjection *Don't use capital letters except for all German nouns. *All words listed in “German alternatives” and “English alternatives” fields should be separated by a semicolon and a space. *An underscore directly preceding a word in the “German alternatives” and “English alternatives” fields signifies that it doesn’t come up during a learning session, but if you type it in as a meaning during testing, it will be counted as correct. Nouns *Always write German nouns with a capital letter. *Always in the singular form, except if they are always used in the plural: e.g. die Leute *The German noun should be written with the definite article: e.g. das Haus. *In “German alternative” field: add the noun without the definite article, appending it with an underscore; (By adding the underscore, this version will not be displayed during a learning session, but will still be accepted as correct) e.g. _Haus *In “Plural/inflected forms” field: add the plural of the German noun, with the definite article: e.g. die Häuser * If a noun is rarely or never used in the plural, write 'no plural' in“Plural/inflected forms” field. * In “Gender” field: add the gender or the German noun, either: e.g. masculine; feminine or neutral Adding the English definition(s): *In “English” field: add the English with no article: e.g. house There should only be one English meaning in the “English” field, as this will come up as the main word during a learning session. *In “alternative English” field: add the English with the definite article, appending it with an underscore, (As explained above, the underscore means that this version will not be displayed during a learning session, but will still be accepted as correct) e.g. _the house. *Still in “alternative English” field: add any other alternative definitions of the German noun that should be accepted as correct. After having added English alternative definitions, do not forget to add a version of these alternative definitions with the definite article, appending with an underscore, as you did for the main definition. Adjectives *The German adjective should be in the uninflected from (no gender/case/number endings): e.g. schön * Add the English   definition * Some German adjectives can also be used as adverbs. In this case, in “Parts of Speech” field, put both 'adj' and 'adv', and in “English alternatives” field, add the adverb: e.g. schnell: quick; quickly *For numeral adjectives, in “English alternatives” field as well as“German alternatives” field, add the numeral itself, appended by an underscore: e.g. zwanzig: _20 Verbs *The German verb should be in the infinitive: e.g. schlafen For strong and irregular verbs: *in “Plural/inflected forms” field: add the preterite and the past participle with the appropriate auxiliary ('hat' or 'ist'), separated by a semi-colon: e.g. schlief; hat geschlafen *For strong and irregular verbs which have a separable prefix, give the preterite in the separated form: e.g. einschlafen (schlief ein; ist eingeschlafen) *in “Special Properties” field: write 'strong/irregular verb'. For reflexive verbs: *Verbs which must be used with a reflexive pronoun (so called 'true' reflexive verbs) should be written with the reflexive pronoun: e.g. sich beeilen; sich benehmen For verbs which have a slightly different or different meaning with the reflexive pronoun, it is a bit trickier. Try and differentiate the verbs which have an accusative object which can appear as a reflexive pronoun (for which there are no exact English equivalents) from verbs where the meaning really does vary. For these, the slightly different meaning should be mentioned in the “Special properties” field; (in time, if not already, there will be two separate versions of the verb with and without the reflexive pronoun to be learned) e.g. sich erinnern: to remember erinnern: to remind For the verbs which have a completely different meaning, they will already, or in time, have their own definition, but the difference of meaning can also be mentioned in “Special properties” field: e.g. übergeben: to deliver sich übergeben: to throw up Adding the English definition(s): *In “English” field, the English verb should be in the infinitive with 'to': e.g. to sleep *In “English alternative” field: add the verb without 'to', appending with an underscore, (As explained above, the underscore means that this version will not be displayed during a learning session, but will still be accepted as correct) Prepositions *Put the case that the preposition takes in the "Special properties" field, written as so: e.g. bei: 'is followed by the DATIVE' durch: 'is followed by the ACCUSATIVE' 'Source' http://www.memrise.com/thread/1292637/ Category:Conventions